Housings containing tiles carrying electrical printed circuits with thermal and electrical connecting straps made from braided metal

ABSTRACT

An assembly comprising at least one tile mounted in a housing, foamed plastics material for supporting the tile in the housing, and at least one flexible metallic strap connected through a metal shoe to a metallized edge portion of the tile, at least one end of the strap being secured to the housing.

United States Patent Inventor Anthony Ernest Cheshire Sparkbrook, Birmingham, England v pp 7 7 114 Filed Nov. 22, 1968 Patented Jan. 5, 1971 Assignee Joseph Lucas (Industries) Limited Birmingham, England Priority Nov. 23, 1967 Great Britain No. 53,356/67 HOUSINGS CONTAINING TILES CARRYING ELECTRICAL PRINTED CIRCUITS WITH THERMAL AND ELECTRICAL CONNECTING STRAPS MADE FROM BRAIDED METAL 2 Claims, 3 Drawing Figs.

US. Cl 317/100, 317/101, 317/120 Int. Cl..'. H05k 7/20, HOSk 1/06 HIM-E l [50] FieldofSearch 317/100,

Primary Examiner-Lewis H. Myers Assistant Examiner-Gerald P. Tolin Attorney-Holman, Glascock, Downing & Seebold ABSTRACT: An assembly comprising at least one tile mounted in a housing, foamed plastics material for supporting the tile in the housing, and at least one flexible metallic strap connected through a metal shoe to a metallised edge portion of the tile, at least one end of the strap being secured to the housing.

I4 U I5 1 IA ID 5 lllllll ATENTEU JAN 5197i SHEET 1 BF 2 I'III/l/ ATTORNEYS HOUSINGS CONTAINING TILES CARRYING ELECTRICAL PRINTED CIRCUITS WITH THERMAL AND ELECTRICAL CONNECTING STRAPS MADE FROM BRAIDED METAL The invention relates to assemblies comprising tiles carrying electrical printed circuits and components, mounted in housings.

Since such tiles are relatively fragile, they cannot be rigidly mounted upon the housing and it has therefore been the practice to support them by means of a foamed plastics material, which, however, has negligible heat absorbing properties. Though a significant amount of heat is generated on the tile, with present arrangements this cannot escape.

The object of the invention is to provide an assembly of the kind referred to in which provision is made for the escape of heat from the tile or tiles.

In accordance with the present invention, there is provided an assembly comprising at least one tile, carrying electrical printed circuits, a housing in which the tile is mounted, foamed plastics material whereby the tile is supported in the housing, and at least one flexible metallic strap connected, through a metal shoe to a metallized edge portion of the tile, and means for securing at least one of the ends of the strap to the housing.

The invention will now be described by way of example with reference to the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a brokenaway side elevation view of a housing containing tiles and constructed in accordance with the present invention;

, FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view of the housing in end elevation; and

FIG. 3 is a fragmentary cross-sectional view on the line 3-3 in H6. 2.

The assembly illustrated comprises a sheet metal housing in which are disposed three tiles 1] arranged in spaced parallel relation, each tile carrying electrical printed circuits and other electrical components.

The tiles 11 are supported within the housing 10 by means of pads or blocks of a foamed plastics material some of which are identified by 16, which, however, do not have adequate heat absorption properties to dissipate the heat generated upon the tiles ll.

The tiles 11 have metallized surface portions to form the electric circuits and in this example three of the edges of each of the tiles are also metallized. If appropriate these edge portions may be part of the electrical circuits and may, for example, serve as earth connectors. In order to permit transfer of heat generated upon the tiles 11, and also if required, to serve as electrical connections between the edge portions of the tiles and the housing 10 there are provided a plurality of flexible straps 12 formed from braided metal, these being connected to the edge portions of the tiles 11 by means of metal shoes 13. Furthermore, in this example one end of each of the straps 12 is connected to the housing 10 by means of a plate 14 and rivets 15. v

The shoes 13 are, in this example, formed from a material known by the Registered Trade Mark Nilo K and include channel shaped portions as shown in FIG. 3, into which the metallized edge portions of the tiles 1] fit, and have loop forming flanges which embrace the straps 12, this being seen in FIG. 1.

With this arrangement the tiles are mounted in such a way that limited relative movement can take place, this being important since they can easily fracture, and the strap 12 and shoes 13 enable heat and also if desired, electrical conduction to take place between edge portions of the tiles and the hous ing 10.

Since the tiles which are rectangular are supported by the straps 12 along three of their sides, they can be withdrawn when required from the housing through a detachable panel (not shown) of the housing disposed adjacent to the fourth sides of each of the tiles.

We claim: 1. An assembly comprising at least one tile, carrying electrical printed circuits, a housing in which the tile is mounted, foamed plastics material whereby the tile is supported in the housing, and flexible nonresilient metallic straps connected, through respective metal shoes to metallized edge portions of the tile, and means for securing at least one of the ends of each of the straps to the housing.

2. An assembly as claimed in claim 1 in which the housing contains a plurality of tiles arranges in parallel spaced relation, straps extending between the tiles to which they are attached by the shoes, and to the housing to which they are secured by said means. 

1. An assembly comprising at least one tile, carrying electrical printed circuits, a housing in which the tile is mounted, foamed plastics material whereby the tile is supported in the housing, and flexible nonresilient metallic straps connected, through respective metal shoes to metallized edge portions of the tile, and means for securing at least one of the ends of each of the straps to the housing.
 2. An assembly as claimed in claim 1 in which the housing contains a plurality of tiles arranges in parallel spaced relation, straps extending between the tiles to which they are attached by the shoes, and to the housing to which they are secured by said means. 